Tuesday, March 6, 2012

OH That Appedectomy Diet I've Heard About Since I Was a Kid

Recovery rooms are a personal issue with me. My last surgery was a myomectomy, my first major surgery ever and I was so scared. When I woke up I could tell I was in a room with like 20 other beds. Most people were sleeping or quiet but you could hear some moaners as well. When I asked for pain medication the nurse gave me something that did nothing. I asked for more. She told me in her quick southern accent, "You're gonna feel some pain." forever cementing my fear of operations, thanks kind lady. I just remember laying there, taking it and crying. Eventually I feel asleep, but the seed of fear was planted.

This time I woke up with the usual, "Lori breath deep, Lori, come on breath deep," that even in my haze feels worrisome. So I breath, even though I just want to sleep some more, here I am, I am breathing. When they ask me how I'm feeling I must be okay I felt no pain. I was comfortable and warm and felt very cozy and did not hurt. My nurse was sitting right next to me tinkering on a computer, I hear her call Craigslist at one point looking for a washer. I looked over and there was another person and he had his own nurse with him as well. I was there for a long time. Obviously my sense of time is lacking but about an hour or so later I did ask for pain medication and she was right there with it. She asked me if I wanted something to drink and she gave me a sip of water. Finally 100 years later they found a room for me.

Turns out this entire hospital is undergoing renovations to turn all the rooms into single occupancy rooms. They happened to have this one room that was a single room but in event of emergencies could be turned into a double room. I was told later this has happened only twice in a few years. I was the second time. It took forever for him to get my bed into the tiny room and then my roomie had a difficult time getting around my bed to get to the bathroom, the door barely had room to open when a bed was there. Brian came in an they were trying to get a chair in there, a regular chair and it was nearly impossible. I live in a 900 square foot home, I should be used to things like this but this room make ME feel claustrophobic. And as my normal luck would have it, every one who came before or after me got their own room, it was only me, it was just my luck.

Finally Brian could sit down and he could explain what had happened to me. When the surgeon went in to remove my appendix it had been completely obliterated, there was no appendix to be found. So they had to remove this mass of stuff that used to be my appendix and part of my colon. I was going to be in the hospital for a while.

Later that day I had red jello and it was the best thing I have ever tasted in years. Then the diet started getting to me.

Since I don't like vegatable brother or coffee I sipped apple juice, not my favorite and had some crazy sweet italian ice and a couple bites of jello.

Lunch:Chicken brothSweet teaitalian ice (orange)jello (orange)popsicle (orange) ... everything wasn't orange but it began to feel like it. I couldn't figure out how to eat the soup when I can't sit over the tray, the nurse suggested with a straw so I tried that. Very salty, strong soup, I couldn't eat much of it. Still, I think I was getting in some calories.

DinnerAbout the same with beef broth. I was really enjoying the tea most of all, I'd alternate sips of tea and water because even the tea was too sweet.

So that was Monday. Tuesday morning they took out my catheter and I had to go for a walk. It would be a couple hours before I could pee even though I felt the urge. Wednesday my diet changed from clear liquid diet to full liquid diet. I celebrated by ordering a milkshake from the caffeteria that turned out to be pretty chalky. The chocolate pudding and yogurt was a welcome addition. Wednesday night I had a teeny tiny bowel movement. Still this made everyone happy and they decided they wanted to discharge me on Thursday.

Pain was an issue for me. I had (actually still have) a drain and it feels like the bulk of my pain. It's so uncomfortable and tugs and various other aches to it. I had trouble sleeping on Wednesday night so I was surprised that I was going to go home but that's how these things work. The whole time I had been working towards Friday and getting this drain out but now they were telling me I'd be going home with it and not only that but I'd have it until my doctor's appointment, a week away. I was devastated, just devastated.

I spent most of Thursday trying to get a hold of Brian to tell him what was going on. I could not reach him anywhere. Finally I called his cell again and he answered and told me what had happened.

On Wednesday night while Brian was visiting me in the hospital out house had been broken into. Although our back fence was unlocked, they didn't come in that way, oh no, they went over the 8 foot privacy fence in the back of the house. I can't even picture it but there were lawn chairs piled on the other side from our neighbor's yard. Then you are probably thinking they came in through the sliding glass doors. No, they broke out all the bottom panes in the bedroom window, it doesn't open and they never opened it. My mom uses screws to hold her windows down thinking that was a genius solution. Not in my case, they never opened the window. They went though almost everything in our bedroom, all my personal items, clothes and underwear pulled out of drawers and cabinets, my night stand gone through, my vanity gone though. I don't know why but they didn't take my jewelry box. I must have some cheap ass looking jewelry in there.

My rings were untouched as well. I had washed my hands to prepare for the Oscar party and put my rings in the kitchen window sill in a little dish. If I had remembered during the Oscar party to put them back on and wore them to the emergency room Brian would have taken them home and most likely put them in a place where they would have been found. Happy accident.

What was taken was our 3 televisions, my digital camera, and Brian's iphone. I appears Brian got home pretty quickly to the time when they left because he called the police right away who found the 3 televisions and my camera in different spots about a block away. Everything works except our large television. We are missing the power cord for one of the smaller televisions. They work fine and my camera does as well. Brian's iphone was not located. At one point in the hospital on Thursday, I don't do this often at all, but I used "Find My Phone" so I could get an idea maybe where he was but it didn't work for his phone. I'm not sure how all that gadgetry works but I always thought hey if my phone is stolen I can search it via "Find my iPhone." I guess this isn't really the case.

I luckily had the ipad at the hospital with me along with my cell phone. We are not sure where my purse was, it might have been IN THE HOUSE. Nothing was missing from it. No remotes were taken and no chargers. They did take the HDMI cables. One came back busted. Also those little fuckers left behind an Anthopologie gift card worth $75, holla!

So the handyman came by on Thursday morning to board up the window. Brian spent over 2 hours at AT&T trying to replace his phone. Everything was still in complete disarray and I was coming home.